A question liked to sensory challenges

If an autistic individual struggles with one of their senses being ‘overly’ sensitive, is it reasonable/common to have another sense be ‘under’ sensitive?

For example, I am very sensitive to noise- to a painful level. This is something, by reading on here, that I know a lot of us struggle with. I also know that others recognise sensitivities in their other senses. I would argue that my sense of smell is pretty sensitive, as is my sense of taste. My vision not so much. I can spot tiny details, but often miss larger things right in front of me. But the sense I really find lacking is that of my ability to detect when I’m cold or have hurt myself. My pain threshold is pretty high as a result. I detest being hot and I also don’t like being touched, except with warning from a select few people, but I really struggle to pick up on when I’ve hurt myself. A few months ago I walked in from a satisfying time in the garage of cleaning, organising and finishing a project, went to talk to my wife who immediately asked what I’d done. She looked a bit concerned, but I didn’t really know what she was worried about until she’d told me. I had a really deep cut on my leg and was bleeding to a reasonable level. I just didn’t feel it or recognise that I’d done it. It wasn’t anything bad, just required a bit of looking after it and now have an oddly shaped scar. But this sort of thing happens quite a lot to me. 

It might not be a thing, but it was a question I’ve been wondering about. It would be great to hear your thoughts/ experiences. Perhaps it’s just something linked to me, but equally, I’d be interested to see if other people have comparable instances or to see if it is something linked to autism or not.

Parents
  • I can relate to a lot of what you experience. I don't do well in the hot and don't like being touched unless it's from the right people.

    I also have a high pain threshold and it takes a lot of pain to really recognise it. I feel like my awareness doesn't work all that well. It's like if I don't drink enough which I struggle with I don't feel it, so I don't feel myself getting dehydrated which is an issue. My sense of smell is the same, I have a great sense of smell but I can never distinguish what's what it's very irritating. I know we differ slightly but I wanted you to know your not alone in this.

  • Glad you bought up having a high pain threshold, I thought it was just me. I broke my arm as a child and didn’t go to the doctors for a week. I cut three fingers off about 15 years ago, I rapped my hand in a towel and now recognise that I was stimming until the ambulance came, I didn’t know I was autistic then, I remember someone saying,”can’t you sit still?” I go into a zone and don’t feel pain. I’m similar to you with smell, noise and touch. I only go to our village pub as I know how it is inside and what to expect, I hate restaurants as the menus freak me out, the menu seems to be 1 metre square and I’ve only had it for what seems to be 5 seconds before I’m asked to make a choice. I had someone come up from behind me in the pub and put their hands on my shoulders, the poor person thought I was going to hit him. The pub had a special on the menu last week with garlic in it and the smell was awful and people were talking over each other, it’s like get tunnel vision and nothing else then matters. My wife is quite good now at recognising when I’m over stimulated, if I’ve started stimming, then it’s time to go!

Reply
  • Glad you bought up having a high pain threshold, I thought it was just me. I broke my arm as a child and didn’t go to the doctors for a week. I cut three fingers off about 15 years ago, I rapped my hand in a towel and now recognise that I was stimming until the ambulance came, I didn’t know I was autistic then, I remember someone saying,”can’t you sit still?” I go into a zone and don’t feel pain. I’m similar to you with smell, noise and touch. I only go to our village pub as I know how it is inside and what to expect, I hate restaurants as the menus freak me out, the menu seems to be 1 metre square and I’ve only had it for what seems to be 5 seconds before I’m asked to make a choice. I had someone come up from behind me in the pub and put their hands on my shoulders, the poor person thought I was going to hit him. The pub had a special on the menu last week with garlic in it and the smell was awful and people were talking over each other, it’s like get tunnel vision and nothing else then matters. My wife is quite good now at recognising when I’m over stimulated, if I’ve started stimming, then it’s time to go!

Children
  • The menu thing really hits home with me. I’ve struggled with these all my life and always put it down to my dyslexia, which it may well be, but you are the first person I have seen describe the same issues. Embarrassingly for me, depending on the company, my wife often reads the menu to me to help.

    In regards to the unwanted contact you described, a waitress did this to me at a restaurant I was at recently. It really put me off my meal. She was clearly a nice person and didn’t mean anything by it, certainly not to affect me in the way it did, but it’s that kind of casual contact that really puts my back up. I just sort of froze until she’s asked how the meal was and walked off until I could breathe and my wife helped me come around again. She found it very funny, because she could have done that to anyone else on the table and no one would have minded in the slightest! Luck of the draw I suppose. I had assumed that the unnecessary contact between strangers had disappeared recently, but I think I was mistaken.

  • I am like that in so many ways and I'm sorry that you go through things like this.

    You are right though when it gets like that the best thing to do is just go. I learnt from experience that staying and waiting for it to improve is a bad idea because it just gets worse and then the anxiety will get worse and before you know it you're having a meltdown.

    It's lovely you have your wife and she knows the signs. I wish I had someone like that in my life.